Railroad Commission heading to graveyard

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, will go out of business unless last-minute heroic efforts are undertaken on its behalf before the Legislature adjourns Monday.

The agency’s “sunset” bill died last week because House committee members failed to agree to reforms, including a “resign to run” provision aimed at preventing commissioners from raising money from the oil and gas industry, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. “I would not pass a bill with my name on it that did nothing.”

Now, a bill that sets a new schedule for sunset review does not include the RRC, and Bonnen would have to make a motion for a conference committee to meet to add the agency.

Bonnen said Friday he was not inclined to do so, noting that the current commissioners and staff had resisted change. “The agency shouldn’t get to go through sunset another time,’ he said, noting that the agency’s sunset bill died in 2011 as well. “If you can’t do it in two times, and the reason is significant lobbying by the agency opposed to doing anything differently, maybe the goal was to have the agency go away.”

A conference committee is also meeting on an ethics bill that includes a “resign to run” provision for railroad commissioners, to prevent them from using their position to pad a campaign account for another office. If that provision survives, some observers believe lawmakers might revive the Railroad Commission by including it in the sunset schedule.